Kiss Drummer Eric Singer Responds to Peter Criss’s Insults

(from http://ultimateclassicrock.com) Kiss drummer Eric Singer has sharp words for Peter Criss, but during a recent interview he never stoops to the level of insults thrown at him by the band’s original timekeeper.


Singer, whose three tours of duty in the band date all the way back to 1991 and bookended Criss’s two reunion stints with the group, sounds weary of critics that claim he’s trying to imitate his predecessor: “I play for the song, and I play for the band. That’s what I play for first. Not for myself, not to appeal to a drummer in the audience.”

Criss took a few jabs at Singer in his new book ‘Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss,’ and Singer took the high road, mostly, during his retorts at the end of a converstation with RockMusicStar.com. “I don’t have nothing against the guy, he’s done nothing to me personally,” Singer said. “I may have my own personal opinions of how I feel about him as a drummer, or how he’s conducted himself, that I may or may not agree with everything, but that’s really their (Criss, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley‘s) beef.”
Singer explains that he was 100 percent genuine in asking Criss to join the band during the 1995 Los Angeles Kiss Konvention, an offer the former Catman called the opposite. He also explains how current Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer helped Criss re-learn the band’s material before the 1996 original lineup reunion tour, and says Criss has also turned on Thayer.

“You gotta remember, this is Peter’s chance to get some more attention for himself,” Singer explains. “Because, he really hasn’t done much since he’s been out of Kiss.”

“I think the ultimate good way is to take the high road in life. We’ve all had good and bad things happen in our lives. A lot of times, when things don’t go our way, it’s understandable why people become negative, or bitter, or cynical about something, but hopefully, they say that time heals, and I do believe that’s true. Hopefully, we all get to that place in our lives when we look back at our experiences, and we try to remember the positive and the better things about them, rather than the negative and bad things.”